She was in turmoil. She was bombarded with anxious thoughts and feelings and could not trust her own brain to sort them out. Reality had become subjective. The cocktail of angst and depression had her fighting one moment and crumpled on the floor in the next. It was the kind of mental disintegration that only a fellow sufferer could understand. She had called me because she…is my daughter.
Worried for her safety, I went to her house. I watched as she screamed and I broke as she cried. She hollered at me and railed at God. If the emotions could have manifested into physical matter we would have needed a bulldozer to clear the room. Even if I had the right words to say she would not have heard them. I was as helpless as she was. God has blessed me with His companionship. Jesus and I are friends. I wanted to tell my daughter of the comfort and peace that is found in that relationship regardless of circumstances but no words came out. I stood, mostly silent, at arm's length and just waited. I prayed silently. When the chaos settled I asked if I could pray with her. After a snarky comment she agreed.
My prayer was simple. "God speak to my daughter the way you created her to hear from you, speak her language, tell her how much you love her". I knew from experience that when His presence shows up in a personal way there is no worldly explanation for the peace and healing that takes place. You feel loved in a way no human love can replicate. You develop faith for what is ahead. I hugged her and left.
I laid in bed thinking about her and praying for her. I thought of all the trauma that had led up to this moment. I begged God for a supernatural cleanup and a new beginning. The phone rang, I didn't even want to look. Our family has suffered years of hard things and when my phone rings at night it's never good. I answered the phone, it was my daughter.
She was so excited and loud I was startled, but she wasn't yelling. In fact I thought she was laughing. "Do you hear that? Mom! Do you hear that?! Oh my God!" and then more laughter. She aimed the phone into her yard for me to listen. I heard a frog, a very loud frog.
My daughter has loved frogs ever since she was a kid. We have pictures of her holding frogs and it's just always sort of been her thing. Years ago we used a tree frog as an icon for a youth ministry our family was involved in and I have that frog tattooed on my arm. So yea, frogs are a thing for us. And now it seemed by the sound of it that my daughter had the largest frog in history in her backyard somewhere.
She kept me on the phone while she walked around the yard looking for him. She was having fun and I noted the drastic change from just a few hours earlier. I could hear the frog all the while somewhere in the background. All of a sudden she yelled "I found him! He's on the pool ladder". It turned out he was just a little thing. It was hard to believe he made that much noise. She sent a video of the little guy puffing out his chest and wailing out his high pitched croaks on repeat.
God had answered my prayer in the most perfect way. That croaking frog was a million times better than the best words I might have come up with. Best of all my daughter knew it. We chatted about God's sense of humor and how He sees her and loves her. To send a frog with His message of love was truly speaking her language. I hung up knowing that my daughter was in good hands, the best hands.
Twenty minutes passed and she called back. "Mom! There's two of them!!" Sure enough all that croaking was probably a mating call. The little frog had found love, just like my daughter.
In the weeks that followed, the pool became the love nest for her little green friends and within a few weeks the pool was full of tadpoles. Each time I visited we watched as they grew. First little legs, then bigger ones and so on. We joked about her yard looking like something out of Exodus when they all decided to jump out and leave. My daughter also grew. It was the beginning of a great change for her mentally and spiritually. First small steps and eventually bigger ones. All because God reached into her broken world in a way she would see and hear Him. He is so good.